The Day After
by Diego Spirit of the Sabers
Summary: Chapter six is up along with a little prelude of a future fic. Tell me what you guys think! I love reviews, good and bad.
1. The problems begin

The day after  
Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age or anything that was ever made into a book, game, movie, etc. I am merely making up my little imagined version of what happens to Diego, Manfred, and Sid after the movie ends. Please be kind in your reviews. Also (for those of you still reading) I have seen the movie and read the book so I made only the plot and words up thank you and here we go.  
  
Somewhere in ancient America, we see Sid the sloth, Diego the Saber toothed tiger, and Manfred the woolly mammoth heading south for the remainder of winter. Sid relaxes on Manny's back while Diego limps slightly behind, as the injuries he had received from Soto were still fresh in his gut. Manny turns around "Hey Diego, you okay back there?" The saber winces slightly before responding "Yeah, yeah I'm good." Diego coughs a little knowing he'll need to eat and rest soon. The mammoth raises his bushy eyebrow "Are you sure? You look pretty bad." Sid popped up and joined the conversation "Yeah you look lousy, you sure you don't want the lift Manny offered earlier?" Diego winced again "I'm just hungry that's all." He said, Manny just nods.  
  
Meanwhile somewhere on half-peak two sabers, Oscar and Lenny, grab a hold of Zeke's rear paws and pull "Yeaaah!" Screamed Zeke from inside the lava pillar "Easy easy!" Oscar rolled his eyes "Oh shut-up Zeke. It's your own fault" Lenny panted and continued pulling "How can a tiger get stuck so far into such a small hole?" After a hard yank Zeke's head pop's free. "Oh my head!" he complaints Oscar got up and slapped Zeke in the back of his head "Shut up Zeke! I'm in charge of the pack now and we-" Zeke looks very confused "What happened to Soto?" Oscar's eye twitches "Thanks to that traitor Diego he's dead." Zeke looks furious "What the plan then Oscar?" Oscar smiles and begins whispering to the other two sabers.  
  
Later that night Diego prowls the area in desperate need of food. He comes across a shallow pond teaming with fish. Back at the camp Manny finishes Putting together three shelters for the herd to sleep in. Sid piles up some branches and leaves and uses two rocks to start a fire. Sid and Manny lay down near the fire. "Manny?" Sid asks "Yeah?" "I miss pinky." Manfred smiles sadly "It was fun taking care of the squirt." Diego limps up "Hey guys which ones mine? Diego motions over to the three shelters "The middle sized one." Manny replies. Diego nods and heads over to the shelter falling asleep quickly giving an occasional cough. After a little while Sid walks over to the sleeping tiger and gasps upon seeing Diego's injury "Manny! Manny!" "Manny grumbles something before responding "What now Sid?" "You have to see this!" the sloth exclaimed. Manny walks over and takes a long good look at Diego's injury, the wound was no longer bleeding but went fairly deep. Diego cracks open an eye "You know it's not very polite to do that." Sid and Manny jumped back at the sudden remark from Diego. Diego had one eye open and a pained look on his face "Well what do you want?" he asked softly.  
  
Oh cliffhanger what will the next chapter bring? -under breath- hopefully an end to my writers block. 


	2. The problems manifest

"Well what do you want?" Diego asked.  
  
Sid stuttered and Manny quickly thought of a reply  
  
"W-we needed to know how bad it was!" Manny sputtered  
  
"And that's pretty bad Diego." Sid added shakily.  
  
Diego mutters something the others couldn't understand before darkness clouds his mind again.  
  
"Diego?" Manny and Sid lean closer, Diego's eyelids feel like they were made of metal and darkness soon overtook his mind.  
  
After several minutes Manny and Sid accepted that Diego was unconchious. They Decided to rest in that same cave for a few days to see if he would wake. After the first day a pair of vultures landed outside of the cave and waited for Manny and Sid to leave Diego. One morning Manny & Sid awoke to the sound of conversation. He listened intently as the two vultures talked to each other.  
  
"I don't know why they don't leave him." One said  
  
"Me neither, I mean that tigers as good as dead anyway." The other replied  
  
With the way that wound smells he'll be dead from…from…from…What do the humans call it?" The first vulture asked.  
  
"I think the called it infection." He friend said thoughtfully.  
  
"Yeah right, well he'll be dead from infection in a few days and then those two will leave him and well have ourselves a good meal."  
  
It was at that moment that Manny made his move, without warning he wrapped his trunk around one of the vultures necks. Sid followed closely as the other bird took off.  
  
"What do you mean infection?" Manny asked dangerously. "Yeah!" Sid Said.  
  
The vulture was shaking like a leaf "Th-the wound on the t-tiger is infected. He-he's gonna die unless it's treated" the vulture replied  
  
"Well then, your gonna tell us how to fix this!" Manny told the vulture.  
  
"I-I don't know how! The humans do they have a plant that can heal it!"  
  
"How do you know about this infection?" Manny roared.  
  
"By the smell and how hot the tighers stomach is!" The vulture screamed terrified.  
  
"Sid." Sid nods and touches Diego's belly retracting his paw quickly at the hot touch.  
  
"Alright then bird," Manny says annoyed Your gonna take us to the humans. Sid hold him." Sid nods and grabs the vulture by the neck holding him tightly while Manny carefully balances Diego between his tusks, he then takes then vulture in his trunk.  
  
"Come on bird, your telling us where to go. 


	3. Will it work?

1 Will it Work?  
  
With their new prisoner in tow, Manny and Sid continue to head in the directions that the vulture gives them. Diego's condition seems to worsen everyday, and Manny's tusks now have several red spots where Diego has coughed up blood that didn't land on the snow.  
  
"Can I have a ride now?" Sid asked  
  
"No." Manny replied  
  
"Can I have a ride now?" Sid asked again  
  
"No." Manny replied again  
  
"Can I have a ride now?" Sid asked once more  
  
"No!" Manny shouted extremely annoyed "Diego weighs enough without your dead weight on board!"  
  
The vulture had somehow managed to fall asleep in Manny's trunk, and a few minutes later is talking in his sleep  
  
"Of course I have feelings for you," the vultures sudden remarke startles Manny and Sid but the vulture keeps talking.  
  
"Yes. Yes." The vulture snores grinning before going on  
  
"But quick. Hide in the cave." The vulture has the largest grin possible  
  
"He's coming." The vulture continues to snore as Manny and Sid turn blue from laughter  
  
Manny dunks the vulture into a snow bank when he feels he is about to drop Diego. The vulture starts screaming  
  
"What, what do you want? Don't touch me!" Manny rolls his eyes  
  
An hour later the heard arrives at a small human settlement. The vulture point's out several small boxes with some leaves and ground-up plants on the  
  
"Your gonna need one and the humans change them every four days, three should be plenty." Manny looks at Sid  
  
"Sid, go get them." Manny says  
  
"Why me?" Sid asked annoyed  
  
"Because your small and insignificant, because I'm too big and I don't trust the bird, and because I'll pummel if you don't!" Manny has Sid bending over backwards again  
  
"Why else?" The sloth asks shakily  
  
"Now Sid!" Manny shout makes Sid run and do the job quickly  
  
Only after Sid returns safely with the plant and the group has gotten a couple miles away does Manny throw the vulture into the sky. Finding a cave Manny carefully sets Diego down. The fur on Diego's entire body is matted down with sweat, and when the saber isn't coughing he is gasping for air. Sid gently applies the leaf coated with medicine. Diego lets out a painful hiss before falling back into his vormal rutine of coughing and panting.  
  
"Now what do we do?" Sid asks  
  
"Go to sleep and see how he is in the morning I guess."  
  
Sid nods slowly and after a while the two fall asleep.  
  
The next morning Manny opens his eyes to a painful growl. 


	4. The Awakening

1 The Awakening  
  
Diego slowly wakes up, his stomach completely empty. He notices a leaf over his wounds, but the second he touches it he feels extreme pain and can't help but growl in pain. Manny wakes up seconds later  
  
"Well, look who's finally awake." The mammoth smiles somewhat.  
  
"How long have I been out?" Diego asks  
  
"A few day's, we stole that medicine from a human herd."  
  
A vulture circles half-peak, still upset the he couldn't find his friend who ran away after the mammoth took him he lands near a mound of snow. Moments later he notices a bit of fur. It was tawny in color and very course  
  
"What the?" curiosity aroused the vulture moves towards the mound of snow.  
  
Behind him three shadowy figures move in, preparing for a kill. Realizing that what he found is something he can eat the vulture begins picking at the fur when the thing moves revealing it self to be a paw, both alive and well.  
  
"Oh n-" The Vultures sentence is cut short as the paw slams down on it's head. The vulture dies almost instantly. Meanwhile Oscar Lenny and Zeke stare in shock and horro as the mound rises to it's feet, blood dripping from it's muzzle.  
  
Meanwhile Diego wakes from the nap he was taking on Manny's back panting and sweating, after calming somewhat he lowers his head again and thinks about what just happened, horrified at the obvious conclusion. 


	5. The Stalking Begins

The stalking begins  
  
  
  
[Insert disclaimer here.] Three days after the first nightmare began Diego had gotten about ten hours of sleep total, and worse yet he was positive he kept seeing eyes, glowing a yellow-green color, that stared at him all night. As the days went by the more eyes he saw, and the times he saw them increased.  
  
On the hill about a half-mile from Diego's camping spot four shadowy figures stared down at him. "I'm so hungry" one said.  
  
"Zeke, chew on your foot." Oscar rolled his eyes again He was starving to but he didn't get to complain.  
  
One of the figures interrupted Lenny before he could say something "No one touches the mammoth or the sloth. Not until Diego's worthless corpse is at my feet."  
  
"But, what will we eat?" Zeke said, still twitching madly.  
  
"You can have his friends, but I want Diego. I'll eat the traitor for what he did!" The shadowy Saber said. Wisely nobody objected to him eating their former comrade.  
  
"What's our plan?" Oscar asked, the figure only gave a smile that would send even the greatest predators on the planet running for their lives.  
  
The next morning Manny was up first. "Note to self: Never sleep on a rock. Lousy cramps." He continued muttering as he walked over to where Diego laid on his side. His eyes were bloodshot and noticeable dark circles were forming under his eyes  
  
"You awake big guy?" the concern in his voice was apparent.  
  
"I haven't slept for three days" Was Diego's tired reply.  
  
"Well I hate to add to your problems but That leaf needs to be changed with the spare we brought." Diego gave no come back as Manny got one of the other two that he stole from the humans.  
  
"Judging by how you acted when we put the first one on this will hurt.a lot."  
  
"Oh joy of joys"  
  
Sid continued snoring loudly as Diego dug his claws into the ground when Manny applied the pressure on the leaf so it would stick to the wound. After Diego's verbal outburst, of words this author refuses to repeat, Diego threw a rock at Sid to wake him up as he was hoisted onto Manny's back. After a long verbal fight over why Sid couldn't ride on Manny's back, the group continued on there way.  
  
Later that night a shadow walks up to the discarded leaf with the medicine and sniffs the dried blood. He growls and uses his claws to shred the leaf. He calls the pack and informs them of one thing. "Now," He says dangerously "The true hunt begins." He laughs quietly as his pack begins to quietly follow Diego.  
  
I can taste his fear from here He thinks to himself as he moves into a hunting position. First we will drive him insane, then we shall kill his friends, and then we shall slowly kill him over the course of several days, and then when his spirit and every bone in his worthless hide has been broken, I will eat him alive, slowly. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ah It's the simple things in life you treasure.  
  
Who is this mysterious killer? Will Diego go insane? Will Diego's friends be killed Will I ever shut up? Watch for the next chapter of [insert dramatic music] The Day After! 


	6. Dark Alliance

Deadly Alliance  
  
'I can taste his fear from here' He thinks to himself as he moves into a hunting position. 'First we will drive him insane, then we shall kill his friends, and then we shall slowly kill him over the course of several days, and then when his spirit and every bone in his worthless hide has been broken, I will eat him alive, slowly. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ah it's the simple things in life you treasure.'  
  
The figure pads quietly thinking to himself and seething of anger. His wounds were healing very well and if they kept healing at this rate he'd only have major scarring at the end of the week.  
  
'Hmm, if he's still with the mammoth and sloth then we could have a problem. Well, more the mammoth then the sloth, but the points the same.' The figure winced as he put too much pressure on a wounded leg then noticed the scent of another pack 'Well this is good, Janga owes me a favor, and he has a very large pack. This could work to my favor.'  
  
Stopping he called his remaining pack  
  
"Change in plans boys, we're heading to Janga's territory for some food, rest, and extra troops."  
  
Wisely none of the pack said anything, but rather nodded and followed him.  
  
Meanwhile Diego had finally convinced Manny to let him walk on his own four paws again. It hurt like hell but he felt more relaxed as it took his mind off the coming problem.  
  
Janga, a saber-toothed tiger with rather dark red fur and green eyes, stretched lazily on the snow. He was the leader of one of the largest packs in the area, and with a total of 34 sabers, including kittens at his command, his was a force to be reckoned with.  
  
"Oh I'm bored" he said to no-one in particular 'It's so boring when it's not mating season' he thought  
  
Just then four sabers walked up Janga just watched them knowing that his sentries would have stopped them if they didn't have a good reason. Suddenly recognizing one of them he jumped up with a grin on his muzzle, but after one look at his old friend his jaw dropped. He only managed to sputter out a few words.  
  
"W.wha.what happened?"  
  
"I need your help my old friend," he said  
  
"Who did this to you? Where's the rest of your pack?" Janga managed to sputter out.  
  
"Diego," was his only word Janga's jaw dropped, Diego had always been loyal and trustworthy. Janga had always said that if he were in trouble Diego could be counted on to bail him out. He was the perfect role model for the young ones. He always carried himself high, but not overly so, he never bragged, rarely shouted, and never put his foot in his mouth. He always knew what to say and how to say it. The thought that someone that good and loyal would turn traitor was more then Janga could believe.  
  
The other waits patiently for several minutes watching his old friend pace and curse quietly before he says one thing.  
  
"You did say you owed me one favor of my choosing when I helped you take out those humans and gain your leadership, Janga."  
  
Bareing his teeth and closing his eyes tightly, Janga nods reluctantly and gathers ten of his best sabers to join the coming battle. And after thinking it through and helping his old friend rest and eat, his fury with Diego had become almost unmatched.  
  
The nest night Diego awoke to the sound of feet, only Manny and Sid were still sleeping. Suddenly the sounds of claws against rocks could be heard. It kept him up all night. When morning came Manny woke up and found Diego shakily sitting near the cave entrance, when Manny poked him on the shoulder Diego fell forward, fast asleep.  
  
Who? What? When? Where? Why? These are the questions running through Diego's mind. If you can you figure out whom is stalking him and why I'll give you a cookie. (Eventually)  
  
Prelude to my next fic BLADE:  
  
'Damn that bastard! If I ever see his worthless hide again I'll break his other saber off!' The saber named Blade, a saber who was at least 25 in his people's years, about Diego's size with ice blue eyes(almost unheard of) and well muscled. He winced in pain again as the saber tooth that was lodged in his side shifted again.  
  
That's all you guys get for now. Stay tuned. 


End file.
